Frittata Italian

I hope you have been enjoying the Thanksgiving Holiday while watching your budget.  Turkey is cheap, as are potatoes, onions, root vegetables, pumpkin and many of our holiday faves.  Stuffing or dressing can be made out of stale bread, onion, celery and seasonings.  No crown roast of pork or prime rib roast is necessary. If you do your own cooking, that helps immeasurably.  


This morning for guests I made an Italian Frittata which was a recipe in the old New York Times cookbook.  When they issued a revised version, the frittata was gone!  I saved it, of course.  A big frittata is a good way to serve breakfast to a whole table without the tedious business of pancakes or waffles, and more festive than bacon or sausage and eggs.  Of course, a strata is good to, but I am very fond of this frittata.  Many are made with veggies and some with leftover pasta.  It is versatile, cheap and tasty.  Can go up and down the calorie scale depending on ingredients.

Italian Fritata in a cast iron skillet

The ingredients are mushrooms, ham, eggs of course, Parmesan cheese, butter, mozzarella cheese, parsley, heavy cream and salt and pepper.  First it's cooked over low heat on the stovetop, then baked and put under the broiler at the last minute.  This served 5 generously out of a 10 inch skillet.  For a bigger crowd, use a 12 inch skillet and more of everything. 


For dessert last night, after a 2nd Thanksgiving dinner, we had a tart made of mascarpone cheese and oranges garnished with pistachios and honey.  It was very special, serves 9, and looks beautiful.  Oranges are Christmasy as are pistachios. 

Mascarpone and Orange Tart with Honey and Pistachios 

The recipe is from Bon Appetit and even calls for a dairy case pie crust.  How easy is that?

Soon I will be posting my mom's special sugar cookie recipe.  She devised it, and none are better,  Happy Holidays from the Cheeseparer

Seasonal Meals with Pork and Cranberries

Autumn in New England cries for pork.  We made this recipe last night, and it was yummy.  I had originally bought port wine (not the finest, but not the cheapest, either) for some Port Wine Ice Cream that was out of this world, a very sophisticated dessert.  We tend not to sip port after dinner, dunno why.
 Anyway, the port sat around and I ran across this recipe in my clippings. Tried it last night.  Walmart had canned cranberries on sale, the sauce, not the jelly, and I served it with green beans and mushrooms and mashed potatoes.  Very satisfying now that it's dark before five and the nights and long and cold.

Pork Chops with Cranberry, Port and Rosemary Sauce

I bring the rosemary in from the garden in the fall and snip it all winter until it goes out in the spring or dies indoors.  It likes to be snipped.  The garden chores are never ending.  Yesterday it was pull up the frost-dead annuals and scrub out the pots.  I have to replant my 2 thymes, plant garlic and daffodils.  Oh, why did I get so ambitious and order stuff.  Now it's cold and damp and only the orange cat likes to be outside, and he isn't gonna plant nothing. 


Our supermarket has pork chops on sale, nice thick boneless ones, that cost about a dollar each.  Personally, I like a bone in mine for added flavor, but bone-in chops are getting hard to find.  How lazy is that?